Right, so my Christmas present to myself is going to be a new iMac, and I don't really feel like paying Apple's insane prices for extra RAM. So I head on over to Crucial's website and do some checking; I've seen lots of people here saying good things about them. $81 for a stick of 512 doesn't seem too bad. But then I get to thinking:

1) Will an extra 512 be enough? I'm not exactly what you'd call a hard core power user; I don't do Photoshop or anything that intensive, and the most recent game I play (when time allows) is Diablo II and things like that.

2) Do I have to install in matching pairs? The last time I dealt with this issue with with my pizzabox 6100 (wow I feel old now).

3) Will any stick(s) of RAM do, so long as they're the proper sort (184 pin DDR PC3200 according to Crucial) or do they have to be Apple-specific?

Many thanks in advance for the experience of those who are more knowledgable about this sort of thing than myself.

Benchmarks posted in MR have shown no performance increase with matching pairs in the iMac G5.

I don't do a lot of heavy lifting with mine and have 2 unmatched 512 sticks in it. I'd recommend you BTO it with a single 512 stick from Apple. If you decide you need more RAM, you can pop in a 512 or even a 1 GB stick later.

1) An extra 512 should be OK. Order the iMac with the stock 256 and add a third-party 512 for less money than Apple charges, giving you 768 Mb total. Then if you get all keen on the machine, take out the 256 and add a 1 Gb.

2) RAM is added to the iMac G5 singly. Adding a matched pair permits the machine to do 128 -bit access, which is theoretically faster, but as rdowns said, has not translated into real-world speed.

3) Many types of PC3200 are NOT compatible with the iMac G5. Buy from a supplier who guarantees iMac G5 compatibility and offers a lifetime warranty.

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